Grammatica Syriaca

Second edition: the work had in fact already been published in 1741 at Halle under the more concise title Syriasmus.

Contemporary half vellum with vellum corners, the flat spine gilt ruled and decorated with gilt Greek-key rolls and floral tools, bronze sheep lettering-piece, a gilt cross stamped at the centre of the upper cover, sprinkled edges; corners a little rubbed. A binding of the period.

Numbering in blue ink at the head of the front endpaper.

The Lutheran theologian Christian Benedikt Michaelis (1680–1764) specialised in Oriental languages (Arabic, Geʽez, Syriac, etc.), as did many of his contemporaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A member of the Collegium Orientale founded by Francke in 1702, he had a son, Johann David Michaelis (1717–1791), who followed in his footsteps—and indeed far surpassed him in the scope of his scholarship—and likewise composed a Syriac grammar which should not be confused with the present work.